20 teaching ideas for GCSE writing

Collect a range of random nouns and use them as individual search terms in
Google Images to find pictures to inspire a piece of writing: the more creative
the nouns the greater the possibilities will be!

Create a list of synonyms for a single word (for example ‘wet’) and then rank
the words in the order of, in this example, their ‘wet-ness’. Explore how the
meaning of a sentence can be changed by using the different words.

Starting with the Teachit resource Changing meaning with commas explore
how commas can be used to separate subordinate clauses and lists. Take
examples of simple sentences and expand them with additional information;
this will also lead to the use of different sentence types.

Find examples in students’ work of the comma splice and see how many
different ways the sentence could be rewritten using connectives, colons and
semi-colons.

Take examples of texts from any sources and, having identified the intended
audience by selecting particular words, phrases and ideas that demonstrate
this, recast them for a different audience. More able students could also be
given a different form in which to rewrite the text.

Use suggestions of favourite songs from the students to create different

atmospheres in the classroom and then recreate the atmosphere in words. In
some instances, song lyrics could be provided to support students. Students
could also practise explanatory writing to show why it is their favourite.

Having generated ideas for the content of a piece of writing on a sheet of

paper, cut the ideas up and justify their organisation in different orders.

Take events from literary texts and present them as newspaper reports to
appear on the BBC News website.

Students collect photographic evidence of misused punctuation (e.g. grocer’s

apostrophe) and create a display of them with an explanation of the errors and
their corrected version. Award prizes to students finding more obscure errors.

Use Teachit’s interactive tools Title Whiz and Weird Whiz to create (bizarre)
inspiration for descriptive writing.

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 20 teaching ideas for GCSE writing
Turn character studies / profiles from literary texts into
Cosmopolitan/Hello/FHM style magazine interviews.

Take the story from a children’s picture book which is told in simple sentences
and retell the story without pictures using a variety of sentence types and
structures to convey the details from the images. More able students could
use a wordless picture book and write the story using just the pictures.

Find (unusual) news stories from around the world and imagine they
happened in the school’s locality. Consider what would change and what
would stay the same and rewrite. For example, a car hitting a bear in the
Canadian mountains would be very different if the bear was in Birmingham …

Make a list of things that a fictional or literary character might own: write a
description of how the character acquired them. Pick one item and describe
what happens when they lose it. Writing in the first or third person would allow
different tones and styles to be used.

Search current news stories to find contentious issues that affect students
(e.g. GCSE grade boundaries) and use them to help develop points of view
and opinions which can then be turned into written texts.

Take a passage from a popular young adult text written in the first person and
retell the story in the third person, or vice versa. If it is written in the first
person, it could also be retold from a different character’s first person
perspective with word choice and style reflecting the speaker’s character.

Play a game of consequences to generate a range of (bizarre) stories. Pick

one and students have to write the opening paragraphs for that story which
hook the reader without giving the plot away.

Repackage spelling tests as a ladder tournament during the term with

incentives for the winners and most improved. The initial rankings could be
allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis to ensure mixed ability challenges
as the tournament establishes itself.

Students are randomly allocated a certain number of linguistic devices which

they have to include in a specific piece of writing. Differentiate by allocating a
different number of devices.

Take the description of a character or location, identify the words and phrases
which present them in a certain light and rewrite to create the opposite
impression them. This could be combined with #2 to explore the antonyms.

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